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For publication on or after Monday, March 29, 2010

Media Kit

announcing the 2010PritzKer architecture Prize Laureate

This media kit consists of two booklets: one with text providing details of the laureate announcement, and a second booklet of photographs that are linked to downloadable high resolution images that may be used for printing in connection with the announcement of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The photos of the Laureates and their works provided do not rep-resent a complete catalogue of their work, but rather a small sampling.

The Hyatt FoundationMedia Information OfficeAttn: Keith H. Walker8802 Ashcroft AvenueLos Angeles, CA 90048-2402

phone: 310-273-8696 or 310-278-7372

fax: 310-273-6134e-mail: keithwalker@pritzkerprize.com

http:/www.pritzkerprize.com

Media contact

Contents

Previous Laureates of the Pritzker Prize .................................................... 2Media Release Announcing the 2010 Laureate ......................................3-5Citation from Pritzker Jury ........................................................................ 6Members of the Pritzker Jury .................................................................... 7About the Works of SANAA ...............................................................8-10Fact Summary .....................................................................................11-17About the Pritzker Medal ........................................................................ 182010 Ceremony Venue ......................................................................19-21History of the Pritzker Prize ...............................................................22-24

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1995

Tadao Ando of Japanpresented at the Grand Trianon and the Palace of Versailles, France

1996

Rafael Moneo of Spainpresented at the construction site of The Getty Center,

Los Angeles, Calfiornia

1997

Sverre Fehn of Norwaypresented at the construction site of The Guggenheim Museum,

Bilbao, Spain

1998

Renzo Piano of Italypresented at the White House, Washington, D.C.

1999

Sir Norman Foster (Lord Foster) of the United Kingdompresented at the Altes Museum, Berlin, Germany

2000

Rem Koolhaas of The Netherlandspresented at the The Jerusalem Archaeological Park, Israel

2001

Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Switzerlandpresented at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

Charlottesville, Virginia

2002

Glenn Murcutt of Australiapresented at Michelangelo’s Campidoglio in Rome, Italy

2003

Jørn Utzon of Denmarkpresented at Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Madrid, Spain

2004

Zaha Hadid of the United Kingdompresented in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

2005

Thom Mayne of the United States of Americapresented at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park

Chicago, Illinois

2006

Paulo Mendes da Rocha of Brazilpresented at the Dolmabahçe Palace

Istanbul, Turkey

2007

Richard Rogers of the United Kingdompresented at the Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace

London, United Kingdom

2008

Jean Nouvel of Francepresented at the Library of Congress

Wasshington, D.C.

2009

Peter Zumthor of Switzerlandpresented at the The Legislature Palace

of theBuenos Aires City CouncilBuenos Aires, Argentina

P r e v i o u s L a u r e a t e s

1979

Philip Johnson of the United States of Americapresented at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.

1980

Luis Barragán of Mexicopresented at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.

1981

James Stirling of the United Kingdompresented at the National Building Museum,

Washington, D.C.

1982

Kevin Roche of the United States of Americapresented at The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois

1983

Ieoh Ming Pei of the United States of Americapresented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art,

New York, New York

1984

Richard Meier of the United States of Americapresented at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

1985

Hans Hollein of Austriapresented at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical

Gardens, San Marino, California

1986

Gottfried Böhm of Germanypresented at Goldsmiths’ Hall, London, United Kingdom

1987

Kenzo Tange of Japanpresented at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

1988

Gordon Bunshaft of the United States of Americaand

Oscar Niemeyer of Brazilpresented at The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois

1989

Frank O. Gehry of the United States of Americapresented at the Todai-ji Buddhist Temple, Nara, Japan

1990

Aldo Rossi of Italypresented at Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy

1991

Robert Venturi of the United States of Americapresented at Palacio de Iturbide, Mexico City, Mexico

1992

Alvaro Siza of Portugalpresented at the Harold Washington Library Center

Chicago, Illinois

1993

Fumihiko Maki of Japanpresented at Prague Castle, Czech Republic

1994

Christian de Portzamparc of Francepresented at The Commons, Columbus, Indiana

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Los Angeles, CA—Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, partners in the architectural firm, SANAA, have been chosen as the 2010 Laureates of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The formal ceremony for what has come to be known throughout the world as architecture’s highest honor will be held on May 17 on historic Ellis Island in New York. At that time, a $100,000 grant and bronze medallions will be bestowed on the two architects.

In announcing the jury’s choice, Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation, elaborated, “This marks the third time in the history of the prize that two architects have been named in the same year. The first was in 1988 when Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil and the late Gordon Bunshaft were so honored, and the second was in 2001, when Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, partners in a Swiss firm, were selected.”

He continued, “Japanese architects have been chosen three times in the thirty year history of the Pritzker Architecture Prize — the first was the late Kenzo Tange in 1987, then in 1993, Fumihiko Maki was selected, and in 1995, Tadao Ando was the honoree.”

The purpose of the Pritzker Architecture Prize is to honor annually a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.

Pritzker Prize jury chairman, The Lord Palumbo quoted from the jury citation to focus on this year’s selection: “For architecture that is simultaneously delicate and powerful, precise and fluid, ingenious but not overly or overtly clever; for the creation of buildings that successfully interact with their contexts and the activities they contain, creating a sense of fullness and experiential richness; for a singular architectural language that springs from a collaborative process that is both unique and inspirational; for their notable completed buildings and the promise of new projects together, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa are the recipients of the 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize.”

While most of their work is in Japan, Sejima and Nishizawa have designed projects in Germany, England, Spain, France, the Netherlands and the United States, under their combined name SANAA. The first SANAA project in the United States began construction in 2004 in Ohio—a Glass Pavilion for the Toledo Museum of Art. Completed in 2006, it houses the museum’s vast collection of glass artworks, reflecting the city’s history when it was a major center of glass production.

While that building was still under construction, the New Museum of New York City broke ground in 2005 at 235 Bowery. Completed in 2007, the building has been described as “a sculptural stack of rectilinear boxes dynamically shifted off-axis around a central steel core.”

The jury citation specifically mentions these projects as well as two projects in Japan: “the O-Museum in Nagano and the 21st Century Muscum of Contemporarry Art in Kanazawa.” The Ogasawara Museum was one of their first projects together.

Architectural Partners in JapanBecome the 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureates

For publication on or after Monday, March 29, 2010

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The De Kunstline Theater and Cultural Center in Almere, the Netherlands, and a more recent Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, Switzerland are also major projects of SANAA. Other works in Japan include the Naoshima Ferry Terminal and the Christian Dior Building in Tokyo.

In Essen, Germany, in 2006, the Zollverein School of Management and Design was inaugurated in a new building designed by SANAA on an historical coal mining site. The building is described as an oversized cube (approximately 114 feet in each dimension) with an unusual arrangement of openings and windows of four different sizes.

The Serpentine Pavilion in London, their first built project in the United Kingdom, was in place for three months on the gallery’s lawn — the ninth such commission in the Serpentine’s series of pavilions. In France, a branch of the Louvre Museum in Lens will comprise some 300,000 square feet of construction.

In Valencia, Spain, SANAA provided a unique expansion solution to IVAM (Valencian Institute of Modern Art) in which their existing building housing eight galleries will be completely enclosed by a translucent skin covering an entire block, and thus creating new indoor/outdoor public spaces between the building and the skin. The proposed skin is a light weight perforated metal that allows daylight, wind and rain to pass through. Construction has not yet begun.

Both architects have extensive lists of completed works and projects as individual architects.

Upon learning that she was being honored, Kazuyo Sejima had this reaction: “I am thrilled to receive such an honor. I would like to thank the Pritzker (Hyatt) foundation, the jury members, the clients who have worked with us, and all of our collaborators. I have been exploring how I can make architecture that feels open, which I feel is important for a new generation of architecture. With this prize I will continue trying to make wonderful architecture.”

And a similar reaction from Ryue Nishizawa: “I receive this wonderful prize with great humility. I am very honored and at the same time very surprised. I receive and understand this prize as encouragement for our efforts. Every time I finish a building I revel in possibilities and at the same time reflect on what has happened. Each project becomes my motivation for the next new project. In the same way this wonderful prize has given me a dynamic energy that I have never felt before. I thank you very much.”

The distinguished jury that selected the 2010 Laureates consists of its chairman, Lord Palumbo, internationally known architectural patron of London, chairman of the trustees, Serpentine Gallery, former chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain, former chairman of the Tate Gallery Foundation, and former trustee of the Mies van der Rohe Archive at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and alphabetically: Alejandro Aravena, architect and executive director of Elemental in Santiago, Chile; Rolf Fehlbaum, chairman of the board of Vitra in Basel, Switzerland; Carlos Jimenez, professor, Rice University School of Architecture, principal, Carlos Jimenez Studio in Houston, Texas; Juhani Pallasmaa, architect, professor and author of Helsinki, Finland; Renzo Piano, architect and Pritzker Laureate, of Paris, France and Genoa, Italy; and Karen Stein, writer, editor and architectural consultant in New York. Martha Thorne, associate dean for external relations, IE School of Architecture, Madrid, Spain, who is executive director of the prize, augmented the jury citation, saying, “The architecture

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of Sejima and Nishizawa explores the ideas of lightness and transparency and pushes the boundaries of these concepts to new extremes.”

In addition to the previous laureates already mentioned, the late Philip Johnson was the first Pritzker Laureate in 1979. The late Luis Barragán of Mexico was named in 1980. The late James Stirling of the United Kingdom was elected in 1981, Kevin Roche in 1982, Ieoh Ming Pei in 1983, and Richard Meier in 1984. Hans Hollein of Austria was the 1985 Laureate. Gottfried Böhm of Germany received the prize in 1986. Robert Venturi received the honor in 1991, and Alvaro Siza of Portugal in 1992. Christian de Portzamparc of France was elected Pritzker Laureate in 1994. Frank Gehry of the United States was the recipient in 1989, the late Aldo Rossi of Italy in 1990. In 1996, Rafael Moneo of Spain was the Laureate; in 1997 the late Sverre Fehn of Norway; in 1998 Renzo Piano of Italy, in 1999 Sir Norman Foster of the UK, and in 2000, Rem Koolhaas of the Netherlands. Australian Glenn Murcutt received the prize in 2002. The late Jørn Utzon of Denmark was honored in 2003; Zaha Hadid of the UK in 2004; and Thom Mayne of the United States in 2005. Paulo Mendes da Rocha of Brazil was the Laureate in 2006, and Richard Rogers received the prize in 2007. Jean Nouvel of France was the Laureate in 2008. Last year, Peter Zumthor of Switzerland received the award.

The field of architecture was chosen by the Pritzker family because of their keen interest in building due to their involvement with developing the Hyatt Hotels around the world; also because architecture was a creative endeavor not included in the Nobel Prizes. The procedures were modeled after the Nobels, with the final selection being made by the international jury with all deliberations and voting in secret. Nominations are continuous from year to year with hundreds of nominees from countries all around the world being considered each year.

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Note to editors: Additional information on the projects of SANAA, the complete jury citation, the history of the Pritzker Architecture Prize as well as a more detailed story on the New York venue for the ceremony are provided separately in this media kit.

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Citation from the Jury

For more than 15 years, architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa have worked together in their collaborative part-nership, SANAA, where it is virtually impossible to untangle which individual is responsible for what aspect of a particular project. Each building is ultimately a work that comes from the union of their two minds. Together they have produced major commissions, such as the O-Museum in Nagano and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa (both in Japan), the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum (Ohio), De Kunstline Theater and Cultural Center (Almere, the Netherlands), the New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York, NY), and the recent Rolex Learning Center (Lausanne, Switzerland). The buildings by Sejima and Nishizawa seem deceptively simple. The architects hold a vision of a building as a seamless whole, where the physical presence retreats and forms a sensuous background for people, objects, activities, and landscapes. They explore like few others the phenomenal properties of continuous space, lightness, transparency, and materiality to create a subtle synthesis. Sejima and Nishizawa’s architecture stands in direct contrast with the bombastic and rhetorical. Instead, they seek the essential qualities of architecture that result in a much-appreciated straightforwardness, economy of means, and restraint in their work.

This economy of means, however, does not become a simple reductive operation in the architects’ hands. Instead, it is an intense and rigorous investigation anchored in hard work and steely determination. It is a constant process of refinement, where each client’s program is fully investigated and multiple design possibilities are explored through numerous drawings and models that check every alternative. Ideas are considered and discarded, reconsidered and reworked until only the es-sential qualities of a design remain. The result is a deft union of structure and organization, of logical purpose and precise beauty.

It may be tempting to view Sejima and Nishizawa’s refined compositions of lightness and transparency as elitist or rarefied. Their aesthetic, however, is one of inclusion. Their approach is fresh, always offering new possibilities within the normal constraints of an architectural project as it systematically takes the next step. They use common, everyday materials while remaining attuned to the possibilities of contemporary technology; their understanding of space does not reproduce con-ventional models. They often opt for non-hierarchical spaces, or in their own words, the “equivalence of spaces,” creating unpretentious, democratic buildings according to the task and budget at hand. One example is the Almere project in the Netherlands, with its many simple classrooms and workshops, all presenting privileged views of the sea. Another example is the Rolex Learning Centre in Lausanne, a space to be used by students day and night. Sejima and Nishizawa originally conceived it as a multi-story building, but, in the course of their deliberation, it became a single yet vast, flowing space. The building’s many spaces (library, restaurant, exhibition areas, offices, etc.) are differentiated not by walls but by undulations of a continuous floor, which rises and falls to accommodate the different uses, while allowing vistas across this internal “land-scape for people.”

The relation of the building to its context is of utmost importance to Sejima and Nishizawa. They have called public build-ings “mountains in the landscape,” believing that they should never lose the natural and meaningful connection with their surroundings. The New Museum in New York feels at home in the rough Bowery area of the city. Their glass-enclosed mu-seums, such as the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, blur the borders between inside and out, providing direct and changing views to the surroundings.

While Sejima and Nishizawa have not published theoretical treatises to date, they are cerebral architects, whose work is based on rigorous investigation and guided by strong and clearly defined concepts. The appointment of Kazuyo Sejima as the di-rector of the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale is a tribute to this.

For architecture that is simultaneously delicate and powerful, precise and fluid, ingenious but not overly or overtly clever; for the creation of buildings that successfully interact with their contexts and the activities they contain, creating a sense of fullness and experiential richness; for a singular architectural language that springs from a collaborative process that is both unique and inspirational; for their notable completed buildings and the promise of new projects together, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa are the recipients of the 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

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chairMan

The Lord PalumboArchitectural Patron, Chairman of the Trustees, Serpentine Gallery

Former Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain

Former Chairman of the Tate Gallery Foundation

Former Trustee of the Mies van der Rohe Archive at the Museum of Modern Art, New York

London, England

Alejandro AravenaArchitect and Executive Director of Elemental

Santiago, Chile

Rolf FehlbaumChairman of the Board, Vitra

Basel, Switzerland

Carlos JimenezProfessor, Rice University School of Architecture

Principal, Carlos Jimenez Studio

Houston, Texas

Juhani PallasmaaArchitect, Professor and Author

Helsinki, Finland

Renzo PianoArchitect and Pritzker Laureate 1998

Paris, France and Genoa, Ital y

Karen SteinWriter, editor and architectural consultant

New York, New York

Executive DirectorMartha Thorne

Associate Dean for External RelationsIE School of Architecture

Madrid, Spain

the Jury

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about some of the major projects of SANAA, works by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa

O-Museum Nagano, Japan

The Ogasawara Museum was one of their first projects together, begun in 1995 and completed in 1999. Built on an isolated plateau on the side of a mountain, the site is an important heritage site where a castle from the 14th and 15th centuries once stood. The building’s shape follows the contours of the land, and is raised off the ground to keep the remains of the castle in sight, and also minimizes problems with rising damp from the ground. The entrance is from a square and ramp to a large lobby with a large window that frames the castle remains. Exhibition rooms and service area are in line with the lobby.

Stadstheater Almere “De Kunstlinie” Almere, The Netherlands

In 1998, SANAA was chosen to design a municipal theater and cultural center that would serve both professional and amateur artists. The site is in a town located on a lake just west of Amsterdam. The project is one of many under a master plan developed by OMA. Completed in 2007.

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan

Located in an historic city on the north coast of the Japan, this circular building completely within a glass envelope can be viewed from all angles. There are central exhibition spaces of different proportions surrounded by areas for municipal services such as a library, a workshop for children and a conference room. There is space around the perimeter inside the glass to walk completely around the building. There are four inner courtyards enclosed by glass, and many of the rooms have skylights to provide diffused natural light where needed. This project began in 1999 and was completed in 2004.

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Christian Dior Building, Omotesando \ Tokyo, Japan

Completed in 2003, the Christian Dior store on Omotesando Avenue in Tokyo called for four retail floors and one multifunctional level. The building could have a maximum height of almost 100 feet so it was decide to achieve the maximum volume and then divide the horizontal spaces of variable heights into retail floors alternated with spaces used for utilities, and all enclosed in glass. Translucent acrylic screens behind the glass can soften the building. At night, the building glows like a jewel in the urban landscape that surrounds it.

The Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion Toledo, Ohio

Begun in 2001 and completed in 2006, this addition to the Toledo Museum of Art was designed to house the museum’s collection of art glass, as well as a laboratory and glass-making foundry for the production of material. The plan, laid out on a single level, is based on a grid of interlocking glass rectangles linking one room to another. The walls of the rooms are of curved glass allowing views to adjacent and/or exterior spaces in various degrees of transparency or translucency. There are interior courtyards as well.

Zollverein School of Management and Design Essen, Germany

This project, begun in 2003 and completed in 2006, is located on the site of an old coal mine, near a carbon factory in a suburban area. Designed as a cube, approximately 115 feet to a side, it is a contrast to the large industrial buildings as well as the smaller scale residences around it. Divided into four floors of varying heights, windows of varying dimensions provide natural light and views of the surrounding areas. The first floor is a common study area completely open with no partitions.

New Museum of Contemporary Art New York, New York

In the heart of lower Manhattan, this high rise exhibition space increases the amount of wall space and keeps the building within local planning limits by staggering the different levels which makes possible skylights and terraces where the floors overlap. Begun in 2003, the building opened in 2007.

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Rolex Learning Center, EPFL (ÉcolePolytechnique Fédérales de Lausanne)Lausanne, Switzerland

This project, begun in 2005, is designed to house a library, a center for the study of languages, offices, a cafeteria, restaurant and lobby. The roof and floor have a slightly undulating form. The main entrance can be approached from four sides by walking under the undulating floor slab. There are seven courtyards of varying sizes and shapes. These along with the variations in the space heights and sizes help create different atmospheres for different functions. This project was completed in 2009.

Naoshima Ferry TerminalNaoshima, Kagawa, Japan

Begun in 2003 and completed in 2006, this building is a ferry terminal on a small island in the Inland Sea of Japan. A large (approximately 39,000 square feet) roof covers most of the site, and encompasses several glass enclosed areas that function as visitors center, cafe, event hall, and waiting area, as well as space for parking and bus stops and is described as an entrance hall of the island to accommodate the people together.

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Fact Summary

Kazuyo Sejima

Born: 1956 in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan

Education:Master’s in Architecture in 1981

Japan Women’s University

Ryue Nishizawa

Born: 1966 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Education:Master’s in Architecture in 1990Yokohama National University

Brief Chronology

1981Sejima joined Toyo Ito & Associates

1987Sejima forms Kazuyo Sejima & Associates

Nishizawa joins firm

1995Sejima and Nishizawa form SANAA

1997Nishizawa forms Office of Ryue Nishizawa

2001Sejima becomes Professor at Keio University, Tokyo

Nishizawa becomes Associate Professor at Yokoham National University

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Chronology of Major Works by SANAA

1996

S-HouseOkayama, Japan

Multimedia WorkshopOgaki, Gifu, Japan

1997

K-BuildingHitachi, Ibaraki, Japan

M-HouseTokyo, Japan

N-MuseumNakahechi, Wakayama, Japan

1998

Park CafeKoga, Ibaraki, Japan

1999

O-Museum Iida, Nagano, Japan

2000

Day Care CenterYokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

La Biennale di Venezia, 7th International Architecture Exhibition“City of Girls” Japanese Pavilion, Venice, Italy

Prada Beauty (Prototype)Isetan, Tokyo, Japan

2001

Prada BeautyLee Garden, Hong Kong

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Garden CafeSeventh International Biennale

Istanbul, Turkey

2003

Christian Dior BuildingOmotesando, Tokyo, Japan

Issey Miyake by Naoki Takizawa StoreTokyo, Japan

2004

21st Century Museum of Contemporary ArtKanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan

2006

Zollverein School of Management and DesignEssen, Germany

Glass Pavilion, Toledo Museum of ArtToledo, Ohio

Naoshima Ferry TerminalNaoshima, Kagawa, Japan

Novartis CampusBasel, Switzerland

2007

New Museum of Contemporary ArtNew York, New York

DeKunstlinie Theatre and Cultural CenterAlmere, Netherlands

2009

Derek Lam, shop interiorNew York, New York

Serpentine Gallery PavilionLondon, England

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Rolex Learning Center, EPFLEcole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Current Projects

Extension of the Instiute d’Art ModernValencia, Spain

House for China International Practical Exhibition of ArchitectureNanjing, China

Louvre LensLens, France

Vitra Factory BuildingWeil am Rhein, Germany

Social Housing Paris District XVIParis, France

Multifunctional Building of the Serralves FoundationPorto, Portugal

Hyundai Card FactorySeoul, Korea

Awards

1998

The Prize of the Architectural Institute of JapanTokyo, Japan

2000

Erich Schelling Architecture PrizeKarlsruhe, Germany

2002

Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in ArchitectureAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters

New York, New York

Architecture Award of SalzburgVincenzo ScamozziSalzburg, Austria

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2004

Golden Lion for the Most Remarkable Workin the Exhibition “Metamorph”

Venice BiennaleNinth International Architecture Exhibition

Venice, Italy

2005

46th Mainichi Newspaper Arts Award (Architecture Category)Tokyo, Japan

The Rolf Schock Prize in the Visual Arts CategorySweden

2006

The Prize of the Architectural Institute of JapanTokyo, Japan

2007

The Mario Pani AwardMexico City, Mexico

The Berlin Art Prize (Kunstpreis)Berlin, Germany

Selected Exhibitions

1996

Works 1987-1996Architecural Association

School of Architecture, London, England

1998

GA GalleryTokyo, Japan

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2000

Recent WorkHarvard University, Graduate School of Design

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Recent ProjectsAedes Gallery in Berlin, Germany; NAI in Rotterdam, Netherlands

;and Zumtobel Staff-Lichtforum in Vienna, Austria

2001

Recent ProjectsMinisterio de Fomento

Madrid, Spain

2002

Recent WorkAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters

New York, New York

2003

Recent WorkGallery Ma in Tokyo, Japan and N-Museum in Wakayama, Japan

2005

Works 1995-200521st Century of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan; Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza, Italy; and Technicum Chur in Switzerland

2007

WorksMUSAC in Leon, Spain; deSingel, International Arts Center in Antwerp,

Belgium; and arc-en-reve centre d’architecture in Bordeaus, France.

Selected Bibliography

Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa 1995-1999monographic issue of Japan Architect #35, Fall 1999

SANAA Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa 2004-2008

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monographic issue El Croquis, #139

SANAA Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa Recent ProjectsAedes, Berlin 2000

Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa SANAAYuko Hasegawa, 2005 Electa, Milan

Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue NishizawaZollverein School of Management and Design

A+U #413, Tokyo, Japan

Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa2005 A.D.A. Edita, Tokyo, Japan

Houses: SANAA Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue NishizawaMUSAC - SANAA - ACTAR, Spain

Shift - SANAA and the New MuseumLars Muller Publishers

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The bronze medallion awarded to each Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize is based on designs of Louis Sullivan, famed Chicago architect generally acknowledged as the father of the skyscraper. On one side is the name of the prize. On the reverse, three words are inscribed, “firmness, commodity and delight,” These are the three conditions referred to by Henry Wotton in his 1624 treatise, The Elements of Architecture, which was a translation of thoughts originally set down nearly 2000 years ago by Marcus Vitruvius in his Ten Books on Architecture, dedicated to the Roman Emperor Augustus. Wotton, who did the translation when he was England’s first ambassador to Venice, used the complete quote as: “The end is to build well. Well-building hath three conditions: commodity, firmness and delight.”

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The 2010 Laureates of the Pritzker Architecture Prize will receive their honors in the Great Hall of the Main Immigration Building, now a museum, on Ellis Island, where some twelve million immigrants made entry to the United States between 1892 and 1954. The Main Building is a French Renaissance structure of red brick trimmed with limestone, built in 1900 to replace an original station that was destroyed by a fire in 1897. “Although we have had many media conferences and jury meetings in New York, we have held the ceremony there only once in 1983 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Temple of Dendur Pavilion,” explained Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation which sponsors the prize, “it’s time we returned, and Ellis Island certainly fills the bill as an historic site. And we’ll be almost in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty which is on nearby Liberty Island (originally Bedloe Island). We’ll closely pass it on the ferry ride to Ellis.” The little known early history of Ellis Island goes back to colonial times when the Nieuw Amsterdam governors purchased, what was then described as a three and a half acre mud bank in upper New York Bay, that barely rose above the water’s surface at high tide. The native Americans called it Kioshk, the Indian word for gull, or Gull Island, since the birds were its only inhabitants. The Dutch settlers called it Oyster Island for the many oyster beds that surrounded it. Over time, it was known as Dyre’s, then Bucking and in the 1760’s, when some pirates were hanged from one the island’s scrubby trees, it became known as Gibbet Island. In Revolutionary Times, it was owned by Samuel Ellis, a merchant and owner of a tavern on the island that catered to fishermen. Shortly before the War of 1812, a battery of twenty canons, a magazine and barracks were constructed. Until 1890, it remained an arsenal, causing much concern for the nearby residents of Jersey City, Brooklyn and Manhattan who feared an explosion. It was in that year that the Federal Government took control of immigration, and the Congress appropriated $75,000 to build the first immigration station on Ellis Island. During the next two years of construction, the island was nearly doubled in size with landfill from incoming ships’ ballast and excavation of New York’s subway tunnels. During the years of both World Wars, the island was used for military purposes. It was in 1952, with the passage of the Immigration and Naturalization Act that sealed the fate of Ellis Island as an immigration station. It was closed and declared excess Federal property. In 1965, the island was mde a part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, placing it under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. In 1984, the current restoration began with the National Park Service collaborating with the newly established non-profit Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. chaired by Lee A. Iacocca. Six years later, the museum on the island opened and has recei ved over twenty million visitors since. The Pritzker Architecture Prize, entering its fourth decade of honoring excellence in architecture internationally, has made it a policy to move its annual award ceremonies all around the world, selecting architecturally or historically significant venues — thus far in Asia, Europe North and South America, in some cases paying homage to works of Pritzker Laureates. As the ceremony locations are usually chosen each year long before the laureate is selected, there is usually no direct relationship between the honoree and the ceremony venue. The international prize, which is awarded each year to a living architect for lifetime achievement, was established by the Pritzker family of Chicago through their Hyatt Foundation in 1979 and is often referred to as “architecture’s Nobel” and “the profession’s highest honor,”

The 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize Ceremony Will Be Held on Historic Ellis Island in New York

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The award has been given in nine different countries in Europe, once in Jerusalem and once in Istanbul. Japan and Mexico have also hosted the ceremony. It has been held sixteen times in the United States — in 2008 the prize was presented in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Five previous ceremonies have been held in Washington, D.C. The first being at Dumbarton Oaks, where a major addition to the original estate, had been designed by the first laureate, Philip Johnson. A year later, Luis Barragán of Mexico was honored in the same place. Three other Washington venues, The National Building Museum, the White House, and National Gallery of Art’s East Building designed by Laureate I. M. Pei have hosted the prize ceremony. Other venues in the United States have included Chicago’s Art Institute twice. The first time was to present Kevin Roche with the award in the Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room designed by Louis Sullivan and his partner, Dankmar Adler. The room was preserved when the Stock Exchange building was torn down in 1972, and then reconstructed in the museum’s new wing in 1977. The Art Institute was used again in 1988 when Oscar Niemeyer and Gordon Bunshaft were named Laureates. The newly completed Harold Washington Library of Chicago was the site in 1992. The Jay Pritzker Pavilion designed by Laureate Frank Gehry in Millennium Park was the fourth venue in Chicago in 2005 when Thom Mayne received the prize. In Los Angeles, the partially completed Getty Center designed by Laureate Richard Meier was the venue in 1996. Laureate Kevin Roche’s pavilion for the Temple of Dendur, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art provided the setting in 1982. In homage to the late Louis Kahn, the ceremony was held in Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum in 1987. California’s Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens was the setting in l985. In 1994, when French architect Christian dePortzamparc received the prize, a whole community was honored — Columbus, Indiana where then juror, the late J. Irwin Miller, was influential in bringing quality architecture to the town. His support of modern architecture began in 1937 when Elliel Saarinen received the commission to design a church in Columbus. Through Miller’s company’s foundation, he paid architectural fees for a number of other buildings by important architects. Monticello, the home in Virginia designed by Thomas Jefferson, was the location in 2001 when two Swiss architects, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were the honorees. Jefferson was not only an architect, but was the third president of the United States, and also authored the Declaration of Independence. It was his donation of his books that was the beginning of the Library of Congress. Although the ceremony in Buenos Aires was the first in South America, the prize had been in Latin America previously — in Mexico City in 1991, Robert Venturi was presented with the prize in the Palacio de Iturbide. The European locations have included London’s Banqueting House, the only building that survived the disastrous Whitehall Palace fire in 1698. In St. Petersburg, Russia, the State Hermitage Museum, a great museum and architectural monument comprising several epochs and styles, was the site for the presentation to the first woman architect to receive the honor, Zaha Hadid. Berlin’s Altes Museum was the location for Sir Norman Foster’s award. Another of Laureate Frank Gehry’s works — the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain housed the event in 1997 when the late Sverre Fehn received the prize. Ceremonies were held twice in Italy, the first being in 1990 at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice when the late Aldo Rossi received the prize. The second time was in 2002 when Glenn Murcutt received the award in Michelangelo’s Campidoglio Square in Rome. France’s Palace of Versailles was the location in 1995 when Tadao Ando of

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Japan was the Laureate. Prague Castle in The Czech Republic was the site in 1993 for another Japanese Laureate, Fumihiko Maki. In 2003, the King and Queen of Spain presided over the ceremony in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, when the Danish architect, Jørn Utzon was honored. The ceremony has been held once in Japan, in the city of Nara at Todai-ji Buddhist Temple, where Frank Gehry was named Pritzker Laureate in 1989. In 2000, Jerusalem’s Archeological Park on the Herodian Street at the foot of the Temple Mount provided the most ancient of the venues. In nearby Turkey, Dolmabahçe Palace was the ceremony site where Paulo Mendes da Rocha of Brazil received the prize in 2006. The palace was built by Sultan Abdul Mecit as a replacement for Topkapi Palace, which had been the imperial residence of the Ottoman Empire for some four hundred years. One of the founding jurors of the Pritzker Prize, the late Lord Clark of Saltwood, also known as art historian Kenneth Clark, and perhaps best known for his television series and book, Civilisation, said at one of the ceremonies, “A great historical episode can exist in our imagination almost entirely in the form of architecture. Very few of us have read the texts of early Egyptian literature. Yet we feel we know those infinitely remote people almost as well as our immediate ancestors, chiefly because of their sculpture and architecture.”

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For further details on Ellis Island, please visit www.ellisisland.org

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A Brief History of the Pritzker Architecture Prize

The Pritzker Architecture Prize was established by The Hyatt Foundation in 1979 to honor annu-ally a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision, and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built en-vironment through the art of architecture. It has often been described as “architecture’s most prestigious award” or as “the Nobel of architecture.” The prize takes its name from the Pritzker family, whose international business interests are head-quartered in Chicago. They have long been known for their support of educational, social welfare, scien-tific, medical and cultural activities. Jay A. Pritzker, who founded the prize with his wife, Cindy, died on January 23, 1999. His eldest son, Thomas J. Pritzker, has become chairman of The Hyatt Foundation. In 2004, Chicago celebrated the opening of Millennium Park, in which a music pavilion designed by Pritzker Laureate Frank Gehry was dedicated and named for the founder of the prize. It was in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion that the 2005 awarding ceremony took place. Tom Pritzker explains, “As native Chicagoans, it’s not surprising that we are keenly aware of ar-chitecture, living in the birthplace of the skyscraper, a city filled with buildings designed by architectural legends such as Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, and many others. ” He continues, “In 1967, we acquired an unfinished building which was to become the Hyatt Regency Atlanta. Its soar-ing atrium was wildly successful and became the signature piece of our hotels around the world. It was immediately apparent that this design had a pronounced effect on the mood of our guests and attitude of our employees. While the architecture of Chicago made us cognizant of the art of architecture, our work with designing and building hotels made us aware of the impact architecture could have on human behav-ior. So in 1978, when we were approached with the idea of honoring living architects, we were responsive. Mom and Dad (Cindy and the late Jay A. Pritzker) believed that a meaningful prize would encourage and stimulate not only a greater public awareness of buildings, but also would inspire greater creativity within the architectural profession.” He went on to add that he is extremely proud to carry on that effort on be-half of his family. Many of the procedures and rewards of the Pritzker Prize are modeled after the Nobel Prize. Lau-reates of the Pritzker Architecture Prize receive a $100,000 grant, a formal citation certificate, and since 1987, a bronze medallion. Prior to that year, a limited edition Henry Moore sculpture was presented to each Laureate. Nominations are accepted from all nations; from government officials, writers, critics, academi-cians, fellow architects, architectural societies, or industrialists, virtually anyone who might have an interest in advancing great architecture. The prize is awarded irrespective of nationality, race, creed, gender or ideology. The nominating procedure is continuous from year to year, closing in November each year. Nomi-nations received after the closing are automatically considered in the following calendar year. The final selection is made by an international jury with all deliberation and voting in secret.

The Evolution of the Jury

The first jury assembled in 1979 consisted of the late J. Carter Brown, then director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; the late J. Irwin Miller, then chairman of the executive and finance committee of Cummins Engine Company; Cesar Pelli, architect and at the time, dean of the Yale Univer-sity School of Architecture; Arata Isozaki, architect from Japan; and the late Kenneth Clark (Lord Clark of Saltwood), noted English author and art historian.

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The jury that selected the 2010 laureate comprises the chairman from England, Lord Palumbo, well known architectural patron and former chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain, former chair-man of the Tate Gallery Foundation, former trustee of the Mies van der Rohe Archives of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and chairman of the trustees, Serpentine Gallery; Alejandro Aravena, ar-chitect and executive director of Elemental, Santiago, Chile; Rolf Fehlbaum, chairman of the board of Vitra, Basel, Switzerland; Carlos Jimenez, a principal of Carlos Jimenez Studio and professor at the Rice University School of Architecture in Houston, Texas; Juhani Pallasmaa, architect, professor and author, Helsinki, Finland; Renzo Piano architect and 1998 Pritzker Laureate, of Paris, France and Genoa, Italy; and Karen Stein, writer, editor and architecural consultant in New York, and former editorial director of Phaidon Press. Others who have served include the late Thomas J. Watson, Jr., former chairman of IBM; the late Giovanni Agnelli, former chairman of Fiat; Toshio Nakamura, former editor of A+U in Japan; and American architects the late Philip Johnson, Frank Gehry and Kevin Roche; as well as architects Ricardo Legorreta of Mexico, Fumihiko Maki of Japan, and Charles Correa of India, the Lord Rothschild of UK; Ada Louise Huxtable, author and architecture critic of the Wall Street Journal; Jorge Silvetti, architect and professor of architecture at Harvard University; Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi, architect, planner and professor of architecture from Ahmedabad, India; Shigeru Ban, architect and professor at Keio Univer-sity, Tokyo, Japan; and Victoria Newhouse, architectural historian and author, founder and director of the Architectural History Foundation, New York, New York Martha Thorne became the executive director of the prize in 2005. She was associate curator of architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago for ten years. While there, she curated such exhibitions as the Pritzker Architecture Prize: The First Twenty Years, as well as Modern Trains and Splendid Stations and Bilbao: The Transformation of a City. The author of numerous books and articles on contemporary architecture, she also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Graham Foundation and is cur-rently on the board of the International Archive of Women in Architecture. This past year she was named Associate Dean for External Relations, IE School of Architecture, Madrid, Spain. Bill Lacy, architect and advisor to the J. Paul Getty Trust and many other foundations, as well as a professor at State University of New York at Purchase, served as executive director of the prize from 1988 through 2005. Previous secretaries to the jury were the late Brendan Gill, who was architecture critic of The New Yorker magazine; and the late Carleton Smith. From the prize’s founding until his death in 1986, Arthur Drexler, who was the director of the department of architecture and design at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, was a consultant to the jury.

Television Symposium Marked Tenth Anniversary of the Prize

“Architecture has long been considered the mother of all the arts,” is how the distinguished jour-nalist Edwin Newman, serving as moderator, opened the television symposium Architecture and the City: Friends or Foes? “Building and decorating shelter was one of the first expressions of man’s creativity, but we take for granted most of the places in which we work or live,” he continued. “Architecture has become both the least and the most conspicuous of art forms.” With a panel that included three architects, a critic, a city planner, a developer, a mayor, a lawyer, a museum director, an industrialist, an educator, and an administrator, the symposium explored problems facing everyone — not just those who live in big cities, but anyone involved in community life. Some of the questions discussed: what should be built, how much, where, when, what will it look like, what controls should be allowed, and who should impose them?

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Exhibitions and Book on the Pritzker Prize The Art of Architecture, a circulating exhibition of the work of Laureates of the Pritzker Archi-tecture Prize, has been retired after 15 years of touring. The exhibit, which had its world premiere at the Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago in 1992, made its first appearance in the Far East in 2005 at the Fine Arts Museum of Taipei, Taiwan. The European debut was in Berlin at the Deutsches Archi-tektur Zentrum in 1995. It was also shown at the Karntens Haus der Architektur in Klagenfurt, Austria in 1996, and in 1997, in South America, at the Architecture Biennale in Saõ Paulo, Brazil. It was shown in Istanbul, Turkey in 2000 at the Cultural Center. In the U.S. it has been shown at the Gallery of Fine Art, Edison Community College in Ft. Myers, Florida; the Fine Arts Gallery at Texas A&M University; the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.; The J. B. Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky; the Canton Art Institute, Ohio; the Indianapolis Museum of Art Columbus Gallery, Indiana; the Washington State University Museum of Art in Pullman, Washington; the University of Nebraska, and Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Its most recent showing in the U.S. was at Costa Mesa, California. A smaller version of the exhibit was shown at the White House ceremony in 1998, and has been shown at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia and at Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Another exhibition, curated by Martha Thorne and designed by Carlos Jimenez, titled, The Pritz-ker Architecture Prize 1979-1999, which was organized by The Art Institute of Chicago and celebrated the first twenty years of the prize and the works of the laureates, was shown in Chicago in 1999 and in Toronto at the Royal Ontario Museum in 2000. It provided, through original drawings, original sketches, photographs, plans and models, an opportunity to view works from some of the most important architects who shaped the architecture of 20th century. A book with texts by the late J. Carter Brown, Bill Lacy, British journalist Colin Amery, and William J. R. Curtis, was produced to accompany the exhibition, and is still available. Co-published by Abrams of New York and The Art Institute of Chicago, the 206 page book was edited by Martha Thorne. It presents an analytical history of the prize along with examples of buildings by the laureates illustrated in full color. The book celebrates the first twenty years of the prize and the works of the laureates, providing an op-portunity to analyze the significance of the prize and its evolution.

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